Ten seconds. That’s how long you have to get their attention. They’ve got plenty of other options, you know. Millions of them. Seriously, ten seconds at most. After all, ten seconds can be a long time. Just so we’re all clear on how long this really is, here’s ten seconds: Click me to listen!...

Instead of augmenting reality, we should make technology more aware. Illustrations by Tim Lahan In the future, you will design the unseen. You will design with sounds, textures, vibrations, smells, and temperature, along with the media you already know so well—text, color, and light. You will design environments and interactions that...

Imagine you decide to quit your job, move to a cozy, small town, and set up a shop of your own. It’d be great. Nothing flashy, of course; something nice, like a fine hats shop. Yeah, that’s the ticket. You’ve always liked hats, and really, there aren’t enough hat shops out there. Your new...

As I listened to one of the last panel sessions at this year’s HOW Design Live conference, I was surprised by how many questions were asked by the audience about content management systems (CMS). They ranged from the easily answerable—Do I need to use one?—to the not-so-easily-answerable—How do I choose the right one? As...

I’m not categorically against apps. On the contrary, I think apps are quite suitable for a variety of purposes; in particular, productivity, gaming, communications and one-way, consumable media are all types of applications that work quite well in the mobile context. But apps are not an ideal format for wide and un-monetized content distribution....

What is a book, really? For that matter, what is an article, a record, or a movie? For each of these, I have a very clear picture in my mind that says more about when I came of age than about the content itself. When I think of books, my mind retrieves an image...

In the past, I often would describe a website prototype as a plan for how a website works, not how it looks. While, in a sense, I still think that’s true, I’ve come to realize that it’s actually pretty confusing, don’t you think? Especially since we go on and on about how sitemaps and...

Sometimes I’ll just stare at a website for minutes on end, trying to figure out why it’s so confusing. Unfortunately, most websites we visit are far more complex than they need to be. I don’t mean complex in terms of functionality, but in terms of all the types of content you are confronted with...

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” I don’t remember exactly when I first heard that phrase, but something about the work ethic implicit in it spoke to me at my core, even as a child. And now, years later, it still does. Yet, I’ve learned something new in the intervening years...

Last time, I tried to shed some light on how web tracking actually works in order to debunk a few myths and increase awareness—hopefully to get us all thinking about it more than we are now. My hope was to leave you with a question, of whether tracking as it’s done today is really...